7.54.040 Imposition of Tax.
A. Except as otherwise provided in this Chapter, the City imposes an annual Empty Homes Tax on each person that owns a Residential Unit for keeping that Residential Unit Vacant for more than 182 days, whether consecutive or nonconsecutive, in a calendar year except for those periods defined as a Vacancy Exclusion Period.
B. The Empty Homes Tax on an owner keeping a Residential Unit Vacant shall be as follows:
1. For the first calendar year that the Residential Unit is Vacant, the tax shall be $3,000 per Residential Unit in a vacant condominium, duplex, single family dwelling, or townhouse unit under separate residential unit ownership and $6,000 per any other vacant Residential Unit.
2. For the second consecutive calendar year and each subsequent calendar year thereafter that the Residential Unit is Vacant, the tax shall be $6,000 per Residential Unit in a vacant condominium, duplex, single family dwelling, or townhouse unit under separate residential unit ownership and $12,000 per any other vacant Residential Unit.
C. The rates set forth in subsection B. of this Section shall be adjusted annually in accordance with the increase in the Consumer Price Index: All Urban Consumers for the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose Area for All Items as reported by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, or any successor to that index, as of December 31st of the preceding year, beginning with the 2025 calendar year.
D. The Empty Homes Tax shall be payable by the owner or owners of the Residential Unit kept Vacant. Not more than one tax per Residential Unit shall be imposed under this Section for a calendar year by reason of multiple liable owners. If there are multiple liable owners, each owner shall be jointly and severally liable for the tax, which shall be the highest amount of tax payable by any owner for that Residential Unit for that calendar year.
E. In determining whether an owner has kept a Residential Unit Vacant during a calendar year, days within any Vacancy Exclusion Period shall be disregarded if that Vacancy Exclusion Period applies to that owner for that Residential Unit, as shall days in which the Residential Unit was not owned by the owner, but the owner shall be deemed to have kept the Residential Unit unoccupied, uninhabited, or unused on all other days that such Residential Unit is unoccupied, uninhabited, or unused during the calendar year.
F. The Empty Homes Tax shall take effect on January 1, 2024. The Empty Homes Tax shall expire on December 31, 2034, unless reauthorized by the voters prior to such date.
G. The Empty Homes Tax shall be suspended for as long as the Berkeley COVID-19 Residential Eviction Moratorium is in effect pursuant to BMC 13.110 and the tax shall resume upon expiration.
H. Upon declaring a citywide emergency, the Council may suspend the tax in whole or part by a supermajority vote of two-thirds of the entire City Council upon a finding that a declared emergency has undermined the ability of owners to fill vacancies in their Residential Units. Such a suspension shall last for no more than 60 days from its enactment by the Council, but may be extended on or before its expiration by a two-thirds supermajority vote of the Council so long as the emergency continues and the required findings can be made. The Empty Homes Tax shall resume upon the expiration of the emergency.
I. The Council may, by majority vote of the entire City Council, amend this Chapter in furtherance of its purposes or to correct ambiguities or errors in language, provided that such amendments do not alter the dollar amounts of the tax as provided in Section 7.54.040 B, or expand the applicability of the exemptions in Section 7.54.060, or amend subsection H. or this subsection I. of Section 7.54.040. (Ord. 7849-NS § 1, 2022)